happening now, rescues are under way after another deadly russian missile strike in eastern ukraine. local officials accusing russian forces of deliberately targeting crowded civilian areas right in the center of this city. in russia tonight vladimir putin is attempting to show strength after the mutiny by wagner mercenaries. this, as we have a new satellite image suggesting the wagner chief is indeed in exile right now in belarus. and donald trump is now responding to the audio obtained exclusively by cnn in which he acknowledges having secret documents he did not declassify. stand by to hear the recordings and what trump is saying now. welcome to our viewers here in the united states. and around the world. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we begin in ukraine with the new russian missile strike on a
so there s still a lot to happen in this story. you re absolutely right. demetri, to jill s point why did putin admit that the russian state fully funded the wagner group? to jill s point, i think at this point he s still seething about this mutiny. he s still thinking about what he can do to go after prigozhin. and i wouldn t be surprised if they open up a case, a criminal case, not necessarily for the mutiny itself, because he promised him amnesty for that, but certainly theft of state resources, corruption, tax evasion, all the things we know that prigozhin has been involved in, are all on the table here from putin s perspective to try to go after him. and by the way, belarus extradites people to russia. he s not that safe in belarus. important point as well, jill, following up on that, now that we re seeing these new satellite images suggesting that prigozhin is in belarus, what do you think lies ahead for this exiled wagner chief? you know, i think at this point, wolf, he
to make sure that he preserves his empire. that means as he gets money from let s say the operations in africa, whether he ll be allowed to keep those, whether he gets anymore money, i doubt it, from the russian government, but i think it s really preserving what he can, and maybe not ending up either dead or in prison. jill dougherty, as usual, thanks very much. demeetry alparovich, thanks to you as well. let s get more on all these dramatic developments unfolding right now. i want to bring in retired u.s. general david patreas, general, thank you so much for joining us as we see these devastating images from this latest deadly russian strike on ukraine how do you expect the wagner mutiny will influence putin s approach to this war in ukraine?
back at the kremlin, a minute silence for the russian pilots killed in prigozhin s uprising. putin may find it hard to forgive a man who shattered his image of control and who he says stabbed russia in the back. wolf, to tell you what s happened to some of putin s enemies in the past, poisoned, jailed, even killed. there s not be many confirmation from yevgeny prigozhin of what his status is. but it s hard to imagine he s got real security guarantees in which country where vladimir putin has such a powerful influence, wolf. good point indeed, matthew chance in moscow, thank you very much. i want to bring in our russia experts right now, jill dougherty is joining us, and demeetry alparovich. jill, russia launched this
on his efforts last saturday to stop yevgeny s forces to make their way to moscow, a deal which likely prevented considerable bloodshed. the longtime dictator said he was blunt with prigozhin. translator: i said halfway you will be just crushed like a bug. reporter: lukashenko says he spoke with putin on the phone and the russian president said he couldn t get prigozhin on the phone. lukashenko said he had to talk putin out of moving against prigozhin s forces. translator: i also realized there was a harsh decision taken to destroy. i suggested to putin not to hurry, let s talk with prigozhin, with his commanders. reporter: lukashenko says he negotiated with prigozhin all day but first had to get past prigozhin s salty language. translator: we talked for the first round of 30 minutes in a swear language exclusively.